Die young, stay pretty

Advance apologies if this post sounds a little callous, but have you ever noticed when a child dies in a (usually freak) accident or is perhaps abducted or even murdered, they’re always portrayed in the media as being either ‘beautiful’, ‘bubbly’, ‘full of life’ or ‘bright’? I mean, does it really matter what they were like? Would it matter less if they were boring, ugly, depressed or stupid? And when a boring, ugly, depressed or stupid child does die, is it just not reported? Is a beautiful (usually white, blonde and female) child’s life worth more than an ugly child’s? Is it just more news worthy? Considering some 150,000 children go missing every year in the UK (many of which are thankfully eventually found, unharmed), I guess it’s hardly surprising we don’t hear about all of them, but it would be good to even out the score a bit.